Everywhere we go it seems like we are at danger of someone or something making us feel uncomfortable. In the essay “A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries a Gun” by Linda Hasselstrom, she explains that many females have to be cautious when they drive on the street, walk to their car, and many times even when they are entering their own house. This is illogical because this means we are no longer safe anywhere we go, including places we expect to be safe. Weapons could be of great use in protecting ourselves but could essentially be really harmful. Being able to carry a gun could be essential for everyone because it allows us the right to feel like we are protected and most importantly, safe. Guns are truly useful for female protection, which …show more content…
Hasselstrom believes that “she has learned how to assess danger and techniques for avoiding it without combat” (Hasselstrom, 106). She argues that having a gun or some type of defense would better help her from getting harmed by anyone at any time. If she wasn't paranoid or frightened, then why would she need a gun or something to protect herself with. Typically if you aren't afraid then you confront someone without fear and do not express vulnerability. We later learn that Hasselstrom gets married to someone who knows self defense which influenced her to learn Kung Fu as a self defense tactic. With time she learned that someone her size could not defend herself against someone bigger than her. She uses the example of her reading about two women that get raped even if they knew self defense. She justifies her non-paranoid self by eventually getting a gun license so she can port it everywhere she goes. Clearly Hasselstrom is paranoid because she believes that “carrying a pistol is not protection: avoidance is still the best approach to trouble” (Hasselstrom, 107), yet she still gets a license for one. Her husband who also ports a gun eventually mentions to her that defending yourself is not necessarily about knowing how to fight or self defense, but that it’s all
For a long time she wanted to deny any existence of 'evils ' (a term she made for killers). When her husband died as an American sniper, she felt the need to own a gun. Her views on guns are mixed, but she is a firm believer in the second amendment (Kyle ¶1-3). "A mere 27 words in the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights somehow manage to incite some of the most heated and occasionally violent debates over two centuries after its drafting ("Right" ¶1). Gun owners cherish their freedom to guns. It is a sense of protection that the government has allowed us to have. Gun control, in no way, takes away that freedom; it simply limits certain rights for everyone 's safety ("Urbanism"
...ct she should not have kept any weapons in her home. Another example is someone with epilepsy who has a seizure while driving on a highway. A person’s movement during an epileptic seizure are indisputably involuntary. However, if you are aware of this medical condition, it can be suggested that you have someone else drive, so that you are safe and other drivers on the road are safe as well.
In her younger ages, she used a gun for entertainment, she loved to hunt with her father. The author was educated and taught about guns, by her father because of the unsaddling event of her grandmother and mother on highway 66 when the three men that were trying to run them off the road for the large cash amount that was used for cashing payroll checks for the miners. As she got older her gun was there for protection and security. She was more assured with it that she would be able to protect herself.
In the article “A peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carriers a Gun,” the author Linda M. Hasselstrom has a credible argument for carrying a gun. Hasselstrom has a solid ethical appeal and her argument had logic based on her many dangerous personal experiences. Although her article is credible, she uses many fallacies to make it seem that if women have a gun they can protect themselves from men.
- in June of 1961, the NAACP chapter of Monroe, North Carolina decided to picket the town’s swimming pool that was forbidden to Negroes although they formed one quarter of the population
...le grounds that she cannot otherwise protect herself from injury apart from using force. The prerequisite of reasonableness is an imperative characteristic of Canadian self-defence law. Courts have customarily used a criterion of reasonableness replicated on the traditional barroom brawl situation, concerning antagonists of identical dimension, force, and ability. In such a situation, the reasonable man rises and faces his opponent, meeting fists with fists. He is not scared or aggravated to violent behaviour by meagre threats; he does not utilize a weapon except if one is being employed against him; he does not indulge himself in weak conduct for examples surprising an enemy and catching him unprepared.
The excerpt of “A Peaceful Woman Explains Why She Carries A Gun” is a personal account from Linda Hasselstrom on why she feels the need to carry a gun as well as, why other women should feel the need to own a gun. Hasselstrom uses rhetorical appeals in order to justify her means of security, however she fails due to her inability to provide a substantial amount of background knowledge.
Gun Control in America is seen as ineffective, citizens believe gun control laws in place are not protecting lives, but taking them away. In order to solve this problem, many think more laws should be put in place. By doing so, they believe guns would no longer be in the hands of criminals and lives would not be ended before their time. In Christine Watkins’s article, “Stronger Gun Control Will Save Lives” She explains that if guns were objects that truly kept us safe, America would be the safest country in the world. She also states that a gun in any home is more likely to be mistreated, causing an accidental shooting. She also hints that more common sense laws would greatly benefit gun owners (Stronger Gun Control). One of her points is quite agreeable, more common sense gun laws would be entirely useful in the long run. By having more safety guidelines, such as; trigger locks, which make it so the gun cannot be used, keeping the ammunition and the gun separated, never pointing a gun at another person, unless your life is in life threatening danger, making sure the weapon is properly cleaned on a regular basis, and even teaching children how to properly handle weapons. By taking these common sense precautions to use, it would prevent innumerable accidental misfires in homes. On the other hand, laws put in place to simply make it more difficult to obtain a weapon is not the answer. By keeping guns out of the lawful citizen’s hands, only the lawbreakers will benefit. Author John R. Lott, Jr. wrote the book entitled More Guns Less Crimes, informs readers that by having a concealed weapon, as opposed to carrying a weapon openly, carries more potential to reduce crime rates across America. By concealing a weapon, no one knows who is ...
One of the first arguments is that in a world without guns, the deciding factor in many violence-related situations is physical ability. Harris claims that the world without guns is “one in which the advantages of youth, size, strength, aggression, and sheer numbers are almost always decisive.” The logic behind this is quite justifiable and calls for serious point in the issue. To support this, he references that police are unable to respond and arrive before anything could happen. Though a major weakness in this argument is that the physically superior being could just as well be the one possessing a firearm. In cases where all present are armed, outcomes would be determined by skill and the type of firearm. Harris addresses this by raising the question of which firearms could plausibly be prohibited. Due to the political influence of the NRA and the laws of concealment and hunting, Harris considers handguns and rifles to be the key issue. His argument is weakened due to making a large claim, handguns are the most frequently used firearms in gun violence cases, yet he does not provide any evidence to back up this statement. On the other hand, his claims that handguns are not in the pool of plausible weapon bans gain more credibility by referencing Supreme Court cases. Instead, he focuses attention on how an armed person could change a situation for the better.
In Elkin’s article, Richard Pearson says, “The gun laws in Chicago only restrict the law-abiding citizens and they’ve essentially made the citizens prey.” Unprotected citizens are essentially targets. John Lott says in his book More Guns Less Crime: Understanding Gun Control Laws, “One additional woman carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for women by about 3-4 times more than one additional man carrying a concealed handgun reduces the murder rate for men.” Men are able to defend themselves without a weapon more than women are. If guns were more accessible, than perhaps crime against women would go down and enhance safety for women and self-protection in
Khubchandani is a professor at Ball State University, which conducted a survey among the students at the University. He emphasizes, “However, the majority of women said there were more disadvantages to carrying handguns on campus. These were women who did not own firearms and did not have a firearm in the home growing up”(Most College Students). He says that utmost women do not want firearms on campus because they don’t see advantages from having concealed weapons on campus. But, he also states that this is the case because they have not been exposed in an environment with guns. Therefore people are only at a disadvantage if they don’t seek any information about gun assurance including a permit and gun
“Their best defense against injury is to put no defense and give them what they want” (Kates). Critics may argue that concealed handguns are not an effective form of self defense. To the contrary, robbery and assault victims who used a gun were less likely to be attacked or suffer injury, “Neither a martial art skills nor chemical sprays provide a real option for victims faced by attackers who are stronger or armed” (Kates). People feel safer when they carry a concealed weapon because they feel that criminals will avoid attacking them. Citizens want to conceal carry a handgun because every day there are dangerous individuals who prey on the weak. In addition to that, concealed handguns are an effective non-lethal form of self defense a majority of the time. Gary Kleck from the Federal Bureau of Investigation “estimated that, 2 million to 2.5 million victims annually use handguns to repel criminal attackers” (Kates). The surprise of being armed is the advantage for the victim, which the victim has the disadvantage of knowing the time and place of being attacked. Concealed carry actually provides protection to citizens that do not carry because the criminals are not sure who is able to defend themsel...
Lots of people tend to argue that guns should be confiscated, they say firearms cause more deaths and violence than any other weapon. Although, they are used in the act of violence, taking them away will not stop the killings and injuries entirely. Nowadays, rotten people, like criminals, buy and steal weapons illegally. They do this so that they do not have to go through background checks while purchasing the weapon in a shop. Even if gun control is put into action, the violence will still be active because of the criminals illegally owning their weapons. Also, if guns are banned, people will not have protection from the criminals using their illegal weapons. In the text it is stated that rape crime has increased in numbers, women and weaker individuals would have no
There is nothing wrong about protecting yourself, but we have to make sure that the weapons we use to protect ourselves don 't get to the wrong people. " The debate about gun control is a global issue. However, it is more intense in the United States of America than any other region (‘Gun Control’ par 1). The groups against gun control show concern about violent crime and they don’t perceive gun control is the answer to violence committed using guns. However, they support strict laws against gun-related crimes and better enforcement of those laws. On the other hand, those who support gun control are of the opinion that background checks are
Hasselstrom. In this essay the author, a pacifist, explains why she feels the need to carry a gun. She begins by describing her line of work as a freelance writer and the isolated area she lives in. She then goes on to recall events from the past years where she has felt threaten or unsafe. One such incident was a camping trip she took with her friend where fellow campers made them feel uncomfortable. Another event was that of a woman who had car troubles, she called for help but reached a rapist who assaulted her. The author continues to recall more personal incidents such as being followed by men who harassed her on a narrow bridge, another man with a shotgun who made her realize how isolated her ranch was, and one evening when a light was on in her home. These events prompted her to learn Kung Fu, yet she still felt unsafe and decided on carrying a gun. Despite being hesitant at first to carry a gun it has proven to be the best deterrent when faced with a threatening situation, simply showing the gun has been enough to protect